EPA calls dry-cleaners site a threat to Memphis' wells

A dry-cleaning business that operated for 45 years near the University of Memphis left behind an underground pool of contaminants that could migrate toward some of the city's drinking-water wells, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.

The former Custom Cleaners site at 3517 Southern has been proposed for study and cleanup under the federal Superfund program. An EPA official will be in Memphis this week to talk with nearby residents and conduct interviews to be used in developing a community involvement plan.

According to the agency, the dry-cleaners operated from around 1950 until the mid-1990s. Like many such businesses, it used tetrachloroethylene as a dry-cleaning solvent.

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Tetrachloroethylene can damage the nervous and respiratory systems and "is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.

EPA said it found the solvent in soil and shallow groundwater at the site in levels above those considered safe. "There is a potential" for the solvent-tainted groundwater to migrate to the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division's Sheahan well field less than two miles to the east, the agency said.

Like other wells serving MLGW, the 22 Sheahan wells pump from the Memphis Sand aquifer, which is a highly pure and deep strata of saturated sand and gravel that in most areas is separated from shallower groundwater by a dense layer of clay.

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EPA spokesman Jason McDonald said in an email that once the dry-cleaners site is formally added to the Superfund list, probably this spring, the agency will conduct a remedial investigation and feasibility study. The investigation "will allow us to gather data needed to characterize site conditions and to assess risk to human health and the environment," he said.

Under the Superfund program, EPA can conduct emergency removals to eliminate immediate threats and long-term cleanups to make the site safe for further uses. The agency tries to find "potentially responsible parties," typically property owners or operators, to bill for its costs.

The dry-cleaners site is now vacant, and Shelby County tax records show it lies within the address of 3523 Southern, which is owned by Minor D. and Elizabeth Madison.

MLGW President and CEO Jerry Collins said EPA has notified the utility of the groundwater contamination. But he said there's no indication the solvent has seeped into the Memphis Sand.

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The utility tested five wells at Sheahan in 2015 and found no tetrachloroethylene or similar compounds, Collins said. The wells will be monitored, and should any contamination show up, "we would respond by taking those wells out of service," he said.

MLGW has dealt with contaminated wells before. As recently as 2009, three wells in its Allen well field were shut down after water was found to contain minute amounts of cancer-causing benzene.

Brian Waldron, director of the Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research at the U of M, said the discovery of solvents in the groundwater is troubling. But the dry-cleaners site lies in an area where it would take contaminants more than 10 years to migrate to the Sheahan field. The main danger, he said, is the possible existence of a gap in the protective clay layer that would allow the solvent to seep into the Memphis Sand.

Reach Tom Charlier by email at thomas.charlier@commercialappeal.com, by phone at (901) 529-2572, or on Twitter at @thomasrcharlier.